Larisa could barely keep her eyes open, her body so weak that every step she took was like wading through an ocean of heavy sand. The house, her home, seemed like a distant world, and the love she had once believed she possessed was fading like the sun at the end of a hopeless day. Gleb watched her with false concern, his expression growing colder with each passing second.

—Come on, honey, we’re almost there, —said Gleb, with an unsettling calm.

But Larisa could do nothing but follow him. Every time her mind tried to grasp a glimmer of hope, her body responded with stabbing pain. The cabin before her was something of a nightmare, with its sloping walls and its appearance of a ruin forgotten by time.

“Are you sure the healer lives here?” Larisa asked, her voice shaking with fear and exhaustion.

Gleb smiled with a strange satisfaction on his face.

—Sure, darling, here it is. Just a little further…—he urged her as he pushed her toward the rickety porch.

Larisa collapsed onto the wooden bench with a momentary sigh of relief. The shadows in the cabin seemed to devour the light, and the air was thick with dust and damp. She looked at Gleb, who was standing beside her with an expression that no longer concealed any of his true nature.

— Gleb… nobody lives here… —she whispered, her voice barely audible.

“That’s true!” he laughed, his laughter sounding hollow. “No one has lived here for years. And if you’re lucky, you’ll die a natural death… and if not…” He paused, reveling in his power. “Wild animals will find you.”

Larisa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was so exhausted that she couldn’t even get up from the bench to confront him. How had she gotten to this point? A marriage that began as a dream had turned into a nightmare where betrayal and greed had begun to corrode every corner of her being.

Gleb, whose presence had always been so magnetic in the beginning, had made his contempt clear. All Larisa represented to him was a means to wealth, and now that he’d achieved everything he wanted, he no longer needed her.

“And my money doesn’t disgust me?” Larisa muttered, her mouth dry with fear and disbelief.

“It’s MY money!” Gleb shouted, as he began pacing around the cabin like a caged animal. “If you had registered everything in my name, we’d be somewhere else now. But you were stubborn…”

Larisa closed her eyes, unable to bear any more. She knew that Gleb had not only destroyed her life, but had now condemned her to die in that lonely place. The feeling of betrayal was so great that she felt as if she could no longer breathe.

It was then that she heard a creak at the door. Something changed in the air, and a shudder ran down her spine. She opened her eyes with difficulty, and there, before her, appeared a little girl. She was no more than seven or eight years old, wearing a jacket too big for her small body, her eyes shining with a mixture of curiosity and sweetness.

“Don’t be afraid!” the girl said, sitting down next to her.

Larisa, surprised, tried to sit up.

—Where are you from? How did you end up here?

The girl smiled mischievously.

“I’ve been here before. When Dad brings me here, I hide. Let him worry!” she said with a spontaneity that made Larisa forget her agony for a moment.

“Is it hurting you?” Larisa asked, her voice breaking.

—No! He just makes me help! If I don’t listen, he makes me do the dishes. A mountain of dishes! —The girl threw her arms out in frustration.

Larisa, despite the painful situation, couldn’t help but smile weakly.

— Maybe I’m just tired. If I had my dad… I’d do anything for him…

“Did your dad die?” the girl asked.

Larisa nodded, a tear running down her cheek.

— Yes… a long time ago… —he whispered.

The girl remained thoughtful, then, with a strange wisdom for her young age, she said:

— Everyone will die…

Larisa, surprised by the girl’s solemnity, tried to ask more, but the girl interrupted her with a determined expression.

— No, no! I’m going after Dad! I’m going to help him! He cures everyone in the village. He just couldn’t cure Mom!

Larisa, almost breathless, murmured:

— How is that?

The girl stood up and headed toward the door, looking back one last time.

—My dad is a wizard!

Larisa looked at her, incredulous. A sorcerer? In that moment, the pain and despair were replaced by a spark of curiosity.

— Honey, there are no such things… —Larisa said with a forced smile, although her soul trembled.

“Yes, they do exist! Your husband said so, that you believe in them. Well, don’t be sad, I’ll be back soon!” the girl said before disappearing into the shadows of the forest.

Larisa stared at the closed door, the wind whispering through the trees. Could he really be a sorcerer? Her thoughts whirled, but there was something about that girl that made her believe anything was possible.

In the lonely cabin, Larisa’s future was intertwined with an unexpected fate. Was this girl, or the sorcerer, her only hope?

— My life… is not over, not yet… —Larisa thought, a faint glimmer of hope shining in her heart as darkness surrounded the place.

Larisa stood there, on the wooden bench, staring at the closed door through which the girl had disappeared. The air seemed heavy, laden with a strange mix of uncertainty and something that might be hope. The pain she had felt for the past few days began to lessen, not completely, but partly, as if the girl’s presence had unsealed something Larisa had kept trapped inside.

For a moment, she thought that perhaps life hadn’t completely vanished. The girl had spoken with disconcerting sincerity, and although Gleb’s words still echoed in her mind, it now seemed to her that something, somewhere deep inside, could still change.

Suddenly, she heard the creaking of trees. Gleb appeared in the doorway, his eyes shining with that cold, empty light Larisa had learned to fear. He approached slowly, like a predator who knows its prey is exhausted, waiting for the precise moment to strike.

“And what was that?” Gleb asked, looking in the direction the girl had disappeared to.

Larisa looked at him with unexpected calm. She was no longer afraid of him. Perhaps what terrified her most now was the idea of ​​dying without a fight, without giving her life one last chance. She stood up from the bench with more effort than she imagined, but the weight of determination filled her veins. She was no longer going to be his victim.

“I don’t know what you’re looking for, Gleb, but I have nothing more to give you,” he said, his voice cracking but firm.

Gleb frowned, surprised by the harshness of Larisa’s words. But he showed no fear, only an irritation that made him even more dangerous. He approached her, but instead of hitting her like he usually did, his eyes shone with a strange greed.

“What have you done, Larisa? Do you think some insignificant girl will change your destiny?” His voice was full of venom.

Larisa looked at him for a long moment, her eyes fixed on his. She knew the situation was far from over, but something in her heart ignited when she remembered the girl’s words. “My father is a sorcerer.”

“Not all is lost, Gleb. Maybe you’ve decided that, but I still have something to lose. I won’t let you drag me down without a fight,” she said more forcefully.

Gleb let out a sarcastic laugh.

—Fight? You have nothing, Larisa. Nothing. No strength, no family, no friends. You’re alone.

But deep inside, Gleb felt a tinge of unease. Something in Larisa’s attitude had changed, and he didn’t like it. He was used to dominating her, to setting the pace in her life. Watching her resist like that made him uncomfortable.

Suddenly, the sound of an engine was heard in the distance. Gleb turned around, but Larisa didn’t. She kept her gaze fixed on the man she thought she knew.

“Maybe I am alone, Gleb,” she said, with a stillness that chilled his blood. “But I don’t care now. I won’t anymore. You… you’re not the man I knew.”

Before he could react, Larisa stepped away from him and stepped out onto the porch. Her legs wobbled, but her determination was stronger than her pain. Something in the air seemed different, as if the arrival of that little girl had altered the course of everything that was about to happen.

In the distance, between the trees, she saw a figure slowly emerging. It wasn’t the girl, nor Gleb. It was a tall man, wearing an old jacket and a calm expression. His presence was reassuring, and he looked at her with an intensity that made time seem to stand still.

“Larisa?” the man said, his voice deep but kind. “I’m the sorcerer she mentioned. I’ve come to help you.”

Larisa blinked, unable to believe what she was seeing. A sorcerer. Something she’d always believed only in tales and legends.

“Are you… a sorcerer?” she asked, still unsure, but something inside her told her that what she believed no longer mattered. The only thing that mattered was what he was willing to do for her.

“Yes,” he replied, taking a step forward, his gaze fixed on Gleb with disdain. “And don’t worry, Larisa. This man’s fate is already sealed. He comes from far away. I’ve come to change your destiny.”

Gleb’s face hardened at those words. He tried to take a step toward Larisa, but the sorcerer raised his hand. A faint, almost imperceptible glow formed around his finger, and Gleb stopped, as if an invisible force had caught him.

“You won’t be able to harm her, Gleb. Not her, not me,” the sorcerer said, his voice firmer, echoing in the air like an ancient sound.

Larisa looked at Gleb, and for the first time in a long time, she saw fear in his eyes. Gleb, the man who had manipulated her, who had driven her to this abyss, was losing control. And finally, Larisa felt something she’d forgotten: freedom.

The sorcerer walked up to where Larisa was and looked at her calmly.

— Come on, Larisa. The journey isn’t over yet, but now you have a chance. You decide what to do with it.

Larisa looked at Gleb one last time, her face filled with pain, but also determination. The time had come to take her life into her own hands. The future was undetermined. She could change it.

And with a sigh, she walked away, walking beside the sorcerer into the darkness of the forest, where a new destiny awaited her, filled with possibilities she could not yet comprehend, but which offered her a chance to heal.

Gleb was left behind in the crumbling cabin, trapped in his own ego and despair, as the shadows claimed him.

Larisa’s journey had begun again. And this time, she wouldn’t be the one lost in the darkness.